They decide which laws to obey and to ignore - and they don't pay their taxes': Inside the anarchist sovereign citizens movement blamed for murder of two police officers

Group is listed on FBI's domestic terror watchlist
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols linked to group
Other members were involved in the death of two police officers in Arkansas in May 2010
Four men and a woman charged with attempted first degree murder of a police officer last week
Suspects appear to be from the same LaPlace family
All arrests are in relation to wounded officer Michael Boyington

he wake cold-blooded murder of two Louisiana sheriff's deputies have put a spotlight on a dangerous anti-government movement that has been operating for decades, and flourishing thanks to the internet.

Seven people - who appear to be members of the same family - are suspects in the deadly rampage last week.

Police have some of the perpetrators have ties to the 'sovereign citizens' movement, a group deemed to be violent anarchists who believes they are not under the jurisdiction of U.S. law and don't need to fulfill duties, like pay taxes.

The group has been under surveillance for allegedly making threats to judges and law enforcement officers, using fake currency and impersonating police and the movement is listed on the FBI's domestic terror watchlist.

Tracking sovereign citizens has not been an easy task for federal authorities, as it's hard to say how many members there actually are.

Estimates show that hundreds of thousands of Americans follow the group's ideals, and individuals follow their own set of laws.

Well-known sovereign citizens include Terry Nichols, who helped plan the Oklahoma City bombing, the agency said in a 2011 brief.

The FBI reports that sovereign citizens have armed themselves with illegal weapons in the past, and have resorted to violence when confronted by authority figures.

The agency said: 'Although the sovereign-citizen movement does not always rise to violence, its members’… activities…make it a group that should be approached with knowledge and caution.'

In a 2010 report, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that the group is 'hundreds of thousands of far-right extremists who believe that they - not judges, juries, law enforcement or elected officials - get to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore, and who don't think they should have to pay taxes.'

According to the FBI, the sovereign citizen movement has been flourishing thanks to the internet, the economic downturn and various seminars designed to spread their beliefs.

Sovereign citizens believe that they live outside levels of government have no jurisdiction over them and resist authority - sometimes with violence - and murder.

And the tragic events in Louisiana last week are not the first time the organisation has been implicated in the deaths of police officers.

The shooting sparked a tense manhunt in Arkansas, which ended in a Walmart parking lot where both Jerry and Joe Kane were killed in a shootout with officers.

The Kanes were later linked to the sovereign citizens movement.

The movement is described as 'loosely organized,' having been founded in the 1970s and more fully developed in the 1980s.

In last week's Louisiana case, three men and a woman - Derrick D. Smith, 22, Terry Lynn Smith, 44, Kyle David Joekel, 28, and 21-year-old Teniecha Teniel Bright - have been arrested and charged with principal to attempted first degree murder of a police officer.

oekel was listed as a wanted fugitive on the Gage County, Nebraska, Sheriff's Office website.

He is accused of making 'terroristic threats' to patrons of a Nebraska bar and law enforcement officials. But authorities have said murder charges are pending.

Police have not released the motive behind the slayings of family men Brandon Nielsen, 34, and Jeremy Triche, 27, who were shot dead in a morning gun spree west of New Orleans on Thursday.

Brian Lyn Smith, 24, was charged with attempted first degree murder of a police officer and Chanel Melissa Skains, 37, and Britney Keith, 23, were charged with accessory to attempted first degree murder of a police officer.

All seven were arrested in connection with the attempted murder of Boyington, who was the first deputy shot.

Charges have not yet been filed in connection with the two deputies who were killed or the second wounded deputy. Although, authorities said yesterday they do not believe any suspects are still at large.

'We don’t know precisely what happened yet,' said Ronnie Jones, an assistant to the state police superintendent. 'We’re still putting pieces together.'

Convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols was a member of the sovereign citizen movement, having asserted individual sovereignty in at least three court cases.[13]

In May 2010, two police officers in West Memphis, Arkansas were shot and killed by Joseph T. Kane after Kane and his father were the subject of a traffic stop. Kane and his father were later identified as members of the sovereign citizen movement.[14][15]

In September 2010, David Russell Myrland, an associate of a sovereign citizens group, sent emails and placed telephone calls to various officials of the City of Kirkland, Washington, telling them to "keep their doors unlocked", that they were going to be arrested, and that they "should not resist".[16] Myrland also reportedly threatened federal judges and the chief prosecutor of King County, Washington.[17] Myrland's threat to arrest the mayor of Kirkland came about after he was arrested by police. His vehicle had been impounded after he was found driving with a suspended license and expired vehicle-license tabs. An unloaded gun with ammunition nearby had been found on the seat of the car.[18] Although he was not a law enforcement officer, Myrland had claimed that he had the authority to form a group of private citizens to arrest felons in public office "as permitted by RCW 9A.16.020"[18] (the state statute governing lawful use of force).[19] On December 2, 2011, Myrland was sentenced to three years and four months in federal prison after pleading guilty in connection with the threats he made, including the threat to forcibly arrest the mayor of Kirkland, Washington.[16] Myrland is scheduled for release from Federal prison on December 20, 2013.[20]

In March 2011, a central figure in the sovereign citizen movement named Samuel Lynn Davis pleaded guilty to 31 counts of money laundering in Federal district court in Nevada. Davis was snared in a sting operation after he agreed to launder more than $1.29 million in what he believed to be illicit funds. Davis accepted $73,782 fees to launder the money, not realizing he was dealing with Federal law enforcement agents.[21] In October 2011, Davis was sentenced to four years and nine months in Federal prison, and was ordered to pay over $95,000 in restitution.[22] As of late July 2012, Davis was classified as a fugitive, having failed to surrender to authorities to begin his prison sentence in June 2012.[23] On August 7, 2012, Davis was arrested by sheriff's deputies in White Earth, North Dakota.[24]

On February 1, 2012, Timothy Garrison, an accountant from Mount Vernon, Washington was sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison after having pleaded guilty to tax fraud. He admitted to having filed about 50 falsified tax returns. Federal prosecutors contended that Garrison's actions cost the Internal Revenue Service over 2.4 million dollars in tax revenues. Prosecutors also stated that the sixty year old accountant had described himself as a “sovereign citizen” beyond the reach of state and federal law. Garrison had previously served time in federal prison in the 1980s in connection with fraud against investors in a cattle ranch.[25] Garrison is scheduled for release from Federal prison on July 16, 2014.[26]

On June 18, 2012, Francis Schaeffer Cox, who had asserted that he was a sovereign citizen, was found guilty in the United States District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, of several felony charges including conspiracy to commit murder.[27][28] Sentencing for Cox has been scheduled for November 13, 2012.[29]

On June 20, 2012, Anson Chi was arrested by federal authorities for allegedly trying to blow up a natural gas pipe line in a residential area of Plano, Texas.[30]

On July 19, 2012, Martin Jonassen, who had described himself as a sovereign citizen, was found guilty by a jury in a federal court of kidnapping his 21 year old daughter, who he allegedly had sexually abused, and of obstruction of justice.[31] During the incident, the daughter escaped from a hotel room where Jonassen had been holding her, ran naked into a store and begged for help. Jonassen was caught on surveillance footage chasing her, dragging her out of the store and pushing her into his car.[32] The daughter reportedly "had never been to school and only read books about religion, history and the government approved by her father." She had seen a doctor only once in her life.[33]

On July 24, 2012, Shawn Rice was found guilty in federal court in Nevada in connection with the same money-laundering scheme that resulted in the conviction of Samuel Lynn Davis. The guilty verdicts came on one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, thirteen counts of money laundering, and four counts of failure to appear in court in connection with time that Rice spent as a fugitive. Rice, who had also falsely claimed to be a lawyer and a rabbi, was described as "a leader in the anti-government 'sovereign citizens' movement."[34] During the trial, Rice tried to argue that the presiding federal judge had no authority to render a judgment against Rice.[35]

On August 16, 2012, two sheriff's deputies were shot to death and two others seriously wounded after having been ambushed near LaPlace, Louisiana. Authorities arrested seven suspects, two of whom have been identified by law enforcement as members of a sovereign citizen's group

The agency said: 'Although the sovereign-citizen movement does not always rise to violence, its members’… activities…make it a group that should be approached with knowledge and caution.'

Not only do the vast majority of them not rise to, or condone violence, but you probably find higher ratios of violent people in the democratic or republican parties. Point being, that in perspective, thse people are not unlike any other demographic. what makes them so worriesome to the government is that they dare to point out the weaknesses of government structure, and do so using the very words the government also uses to keep the populace under their thumb.

I don't subscribe to many of the sovereign's practices and beliefs, but after researching them, I have found they have many good points. They do believe in the adherance to the constitutional law, and that's another thing that troubles the government. The constitution perscribes our coin, our prosecutiona; system, basic rights, and limits the power of government. These are things that our current government finds repugnant and develop crafty methods to evade. The failure of the government to obtain precisely what they want from constitutional law spurred them to create administrative law, which has invaded the legal system like a virus, and destroyed many basic rights that a person has. They created a system of "infractions" that are neither crimes nor civil suits to get around the jury trial rights of persons. Administrative penalties can and are levied in the thousands of dollars, by a person, not even a judge, without a trial, and all you can do is "appeal" after the fact.

I won't get into the that whole can of worms right now, but the sovereigns use of the constitution is the biggest problem to the government, not the few crimes they commit. If the government was so worried about a certain demographic that committed crimes, they'd be hot on the trail of illegals. But illegals don't use the constitution's plain language in most cases, and immigration law is basically administrative law too, so they're no grand problem to the machine

Say what you want about the few that have latched on to the sovereign movement and committed crimes and mayhem, but that's not the whole of them. The government in this case is trying to snuff out a smoldering fire that threatens to burn the paper chains that keep them in power.